by Bria King
One of the Caribbean’s newest authors is on a mission to publish seven books by her seventh birthday in October this year.
“I just thought why not? Why not have seven books for my seventh birthday? Seven by seven…” a Coryn Clarke sprite told SEARCHLIGHT this week when asked about the reasoning behind her goal.
The six-year-old writer from Trinidad has already published three children’s books in which she shares her real-life experiences.
Her first book, “Chronicles of Coryn: 7 days of fun” was written and published when she was just four years old and, “is about my fun hobbies with my family”.
Coryn’s mother, Dionne Baptiste-Clarke noted that her daughter was extremely hands-on in every aspect of writing her first book.
And the same has been true for every release that has followed.
“She came to me when she was four, saying she wanted to write a book. I really didn’t pay attention. I didn’t do anything to help him,” Baptiste-Clarke explained.
“She said it a few times and one day — it was already COVID, so I was working from home — she dragged the desk over to where I was working and she just started writing.”
At the end of that week, the determined young writer handed her mother a manuscript of her first book and gave her instructions on how she wanted the illustrations to look.
“She has the final say on everything and she has never stopped,” her mother said.
Her other two published books are Chronicles of Coryn: Adventures in St Kitts and Nevis, and Chronicles of Coryn: Gratitude Journal and Activity Book; and to date, all three have received high reviews on Amazon, where they are currently available.
“I actually like to see the smiles on people’s faces and also for the kids to learn something,” Coryn told SEARCHLIGHT, adding that reading is very important because it helps educate young minds about different things.
The young author also told SEARCHLIGHT that her four books are written and all should be published by her seventh birthday on October 23.
In her fourth book, Coryn pays tribute to her great-grandmother, Jonesy, who died in 2021.
It is aptly titled The Coryn Chronicles: In Memory of My Great-Grandmother: A Tribute to Jonesy.
She said her great-grandmother liked to celebrate Trinidad and Tobago’s Independence Day “so that’s why I’m going to publish this book on Independence Day… August 31”.
In her fifth edition, Coryn’s Chronicles: Traditional Carnival Characters in Trinidad and Tobago, Coryn hopes to educate young children about the traditional characters that appear at the country’s biggest cultural festival each year.
Her penultimate release before October 23 is also closely related to her fifth, as it is a coloring and activity book centered around the same theme.
“Chronicles of Coryn: Meet my heroes” is the last book that the young author will publish before her birthday this year and contains “heroes and heroines” that she admires; two of whom are musician College Boy Jesse, and Trinidadian Olympian Keyshorn Walcott.
The six-year-old said she admired College Boy Jesse because of his love of calypso and soca music and 2012 Olympic gold medalist Walcott because “he’s competitive and… I’m competitive too”.
Coryn enjoys reading, writing and drawing in her free time.
She also plays piano and drums and is preparing to start guitar lessons.
Baptiste-Clarke, Coryn’s mother told SEARCHLIGHT that she tried to discourage her daughter from her “seven to seven” goal as it seemed like too much to publish in a short space of time.
But it didn’t deter the young author, who actually wrote six additional books but will only publish four this year.
Coryn is credited with starting her book club in Trinidad, which runs weekly.
And last year, instead of asking relatives for birthday presents, she asked them to donate books for her to give to children who didn’t have books of their own.
This initiative has led to the formation of the Jonesy Literacy Foundation.
Once published, all of Coryn’s books will be available on Amazon.
